Two Midland maternity units were forced to close their doors to expectant mothers last year, according to figures published by the Conservatives yesterday.

A Freedom of Information request was sent to the 147 NHS acute trusts providing maternity services in England , of which 103 responded.

Of the 13 units across the region only the George Eliot Hospital, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, and the Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, in Gloucester, admitted to closures last year.

Staff at the George Eliot were forced to turn away pregnant women on September 8, 2007, for nearly 12 hours, as the unit was full to capacity.

Meanwhile the Gloucestershire Royal unit closed on September 27 and October 27 but did not state why.

Seven of the 13 trusts reported no closures while the remaining five did not respond to the FoI request.

Councillor Deidre Alden (Con Harborne), chair of Birmingham City Council's health scrutiny committee, said she feared the rising birthrate was putting maternity units under more pressure.

"In conversations I've had with Birmingham Women's Hospital it's apparent that they had significant increases last July and August which do not appear to be a blip, and if this trend does continue more trusts are going to be feeling the pressure in terms of staffing and capacity," she said.

Nationally 43 trusts (42 per cent) said they had closed their maternity unit or had been forced to divert women to another site at least once in 2007 because of capacity problems.

The figures suggested that large maternity units closed more often, with 74 per cent of those shutting having more than 3,000 births last year.

The Tories said several trusts where maternity units have recently been closed or downgraded, or are set to be closed or downgraded, did not respond to the request.